Sunday, March 3, 2013

Creating a Risk-Taking Classroom Environment

As teachers, we know the importance of investing our time
and energies into building trust and relationships with our students.

But just because your students trust you, doesn’t mean
they’re ready to take risks. For true risk-taking to occur, students need to
trust their classmates too.

Think about it. Who do most students want approval from?
Their peers.

Are students in your classroom willing to take risks in
front of their classmates?

The other day, a student, who is well respected by her peers
and her teachers, told me she intentionally minimizes her class participation
in several classes because she doesn’t want to be seen in a negative light by
her peers.

Hearing this, I sat down at lunch with a group of our
high-achieving seniors and asked, “Are there times where you censor yourself in
class because you don’t want to be perceived negatively by your peers?” Almost
universally, they answered, “Yes.”

One expanded on her answer, “In some classes I don’t even
like it when a teacher calls on me to share an answer or my thoughts.”

Ouch!Here were some
of our best and brightest saying that they’re not comfortable answering or
asking questions. They held back during class discussions. They intentionally
minimized their risk-taking at the expense of educational exploration.

So how can you encourage risk-taking in your classroom?

1.Demonstrate and Model Risk Taking

This can be as simple as stating at the
beginning of a new lesson, “I’m trying something new today with this lesson.
It’s been a pretty good lesson in the past, but it wasn’t one of my best. I
worked hard to create an engaging lesson. Let’s see how it goes.”

2.Model Failure

I’m a horrible artist. I know it
and as soon as I complete my first drawing, my students know it. One of my
first lessons of the year requires me to draw a prehistoric scene. After completing the drawing, I tell the
students, “You have 30 seconds to laugh and make comments about my drawing.”

During the 30 seconds, one student—either
an immense suck-up, someone who is equally inept at drawing or one of the
kindest people on Earth—complements my drawing.

After the laughter subsides, I build
upon the kind comment. “Thanks for the kind words. Simple complements like that
can inspire. Most of you laughed or made snide comments; I’m fine with them
because I know I’m an awful artist, and I think it’s important to be able to
laugh at myself. But, lets always be mindful of others as we move forwards.
We’re going to be with each other for another 80-plus days for 90 minutes each day;
we want to be positive with each other.”

3.Provide risk-taking opportunities

As teachers, we must give up some
control. Students need autonomy. The learning needs to be real, relevant,
interesting and meaningful. As teachers we must make learning possible. We
cannot learn for the students.

One of the simplest means of
providing risk-taking and authentic learning opportunities is to share your
learning objective/target with the students and tell the students, “How can you
show me that you [insert learning target]?”

Allow the students to brainstorm
and collaborate. Initially it may be awkward for you as a teacher to relinquish
some control (students also may be uncomfortable at first), but the end reward
of authentic learning will be immense.

This philosophy, of course, is at
the heart of project-based learning, but is just as effective with a simple
daily assignment. Engaging assignments stimulate curiosity and creativity. As
Daniel Pink stated in an interview with Scholastic, “Science shows us the better way to
motivation is to build more on autonomy, our desire to be self-directed; on
mastery, which is our desire to get better and better at something that
matters; and on purpose, which is our desire to be part of something larger
than ourselves.”

4.Minimize the pain of making an error

In providing student with choices, many students
will choose a safe, time-tested approach. Students—often it’s the ones with the
highest GPA’s—are afraid to take risks because it can negatively impact their
grades. Learning is a process that shouldn’t be graded. Errors and mistakes
should be embraced as part of the learning process. If the project or
assignment is being used for assessment, allow students the opportunity to
demonstrate mastery in another way or extend the due date.

As teachers, it’s our job to instill in
students the realization that effort will lead to improvement and learning. In
her book Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, Amy Edmonson says,
we must highlight failures as learning opportunities “by avoiding punishing
others for having taken well-intentioned risks that backfired, leaders inspire
people to embrace error and failure and deal with them in a productive manner.”

Students
who trust their teachers believe that teachers will turn their failures into
learning opportunities. They know their efforts will be valued and rewarded by
their teachers and peers. Only in such environments, will students be willing
to take risks.

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About Me

I'm an associate principal at Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Before moving to Charlottesville, I was an assistant principal at Kettle Run
High School in Nokesville, VA and before that I
taught world history, freshman seminar, individual reading and academic
coaching at Fauquier High School. I also coached girls basketball and
boys lacrosse while at FHS. Additionally, I taught and coached for 6
years at Rappahannock County High School. I also spent 1 year at Cedars
Academy in Bridgeville, Delaware.

I'm a co-moderator of #vachat, a weekly Twitter conversation for
Virginia (and non-Viriginians too) educators. We chat every Monday at 8
ET.

Most importantly, I'm a father and grandfather I have 4
wonderful children and a couple of grandchildren. In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities, cooking,
reading, sports, and, of course, spending time with family.